RFC - 3581

An Extension to the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for Symmetric Response Routing

Original:	ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc3581.txt
Authors:	J. Rosenberg [dynamicsoft], H. Schulzrinne [Columbia University]
Date:	August 2003
Category:	Proposed Standard

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Referred by:	3 RFC
Refers to:	5 RFC

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Status

This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) operates over UDP and TCP, among others. When used with UDP, responses to requests are returned to the source address the request came from, and to the port written into the topmost Via header field value of the request. This behavior is not desirable in many cases, most notably, when the client is behind a Network Address Translator (NAT). This extension defines a new parameter for the Via header field, called "rport", that allows a client to request that the server send the response back to the source IP address and port from which the request originated.

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